Biography
Nghana Lewis is an associate professor of English and Africana Studies; a faculty affiliate of the School of Law; and an adjunct professor with the Department of Psychology. She also serves as District Judge with Louisiana’s 40th Judicial District Court. Dr. Lewis is the author of Entitled to the Pedestal: Place, Race, and Progress in White Southern Women’s Writing, 1920-1945 and several articles, which highlight her cross-sectional research and teaching interests in black literary & cultural studies, HIV/AIDS, hip hop, black women's health, and criminal justice transformation. Dr. Lewis’ current project, Black Women’s Health in the Age of Hip Hop & HIV/AIDS: A Retrospective Remix, examines how the praxis of hip hop feminism in works created by black women artists between 1996 and 2006 fostered a continuum of knowledge in response to the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on black women and girls, at a time when black women and girls were largely left out of sponsored HIV/AIDS-related clinical trials and empirical studies. Dr. Lewis is also currently developing The Literacy Clinic, a pilot prevention-intervention program that supports literacy education for adults who are involved in the criminal justice system and families with children enrolled in resource-challenged elementary public schools.